


She Sat on the Floor of the Tent and Nodded

by fromthedepthsofinsanity



Series: First Line - Homestuck Edition [9]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: After credits, F/F, First Line Series, Implied Relationships, M/M, Married Couple Rose/Kanaya, Mentioned Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas - Freeform, Post-Canon, Post-Game(s), Post-Sburb/Sgrub, Search and Rescue, mentioned relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-25 21:09:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14985635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fromthedepthsofinsanity/pseuds/fromthedepthsofinsanity
Summary: Rose obsesses, Kanaya worries, and friends have gone missing without explanation.





	She Sat on the Floor of the Tent and Nodded

She sat on the floor of the tent and nodded. Truthfully, she hadn’t heard Kanaya at all. Well, that was only partially true. Rose had heard her name at least, and the fact that Kanaya had asked her a question. Whether it was a yes or no was up for debate, but she couldn’t find any space in her brain to process much outside of the numerous maps sprawled out in front of her. 

“Rose?” Kanaya tried again, but only received the straightening of her wife’s back in acknowledgement. A different tone then, more sing-songy than the last, “Rose?” 

Still, nothing. 

Rose absently scratched at her face, another bug bite causing her grief no doubt, and shook her head. She had decided against going to the falls. There was nothing to be found there. At least, not at the top. Caves and hidden treasure rooms were at the bottom usually, right? If that proven true, maybe- 

“Rose,” Kanaya called, catching her ear, but not enough to drag her eyes away from the maps. 

“Mm?” Non-committal reply. She was still too engrossed. 

Lithe, gray arms snaked their way over Rose’s shoulders and loosely rested around her neck. Kanaya rubbed her cheek against hers and planted a jade kiss on her collar. 

“Kanaya-” 

“I asked you when you had slept, if at all,” Kanaya murmured. She wanted to be relieved that she finally broke into the bubble Rose had constructed and wanted to be playful with their closeness, but now, sharing her air, feeling her warmth, letting her emotions worm their way into her skin, Kanaya only felt weary, “Asked you when you last ate. Asked when you were going to blink next.” 

“Oh,” It was a simple reply, of course, but elegant and layered coming from Rose, “I apologize. I was only…” 

A violet gaze was finally torn from the map she studied to the beautiful hands folded on her chest, completing the circle Kanaya’s arms made. They moved up and cradled her shoulders, maneuvering her body closer to her wife’s and enveloping her more into the warmth she provided. Kanaya placed another kiss and a hum into her skin.

“I know,” She said, eyes shut and voice wispy, “I know, Rose.” 

Rose fell into the shelter Kanaya provided and leaned against her with a sigh, “I’m not really suited for this. If Jade or Jake were here-” 

“If they were here, you would still worry. Jake may be quite the explorer, and Jade quite the tracker, but they are no Rose. We will figure something out.” 

“It’s been days.” 

Rose wished that was only the half of it. She used ‘days,’ but the term had long since evolved into ‘weeks’ and ‘months.’ The only blessing was that the words hadn’t combined to form the dreaded ‘years’ quite yet. 

Years without her friends and family. Rose felt her heart sink lower. She didn’t want to think about that. Days without them had been too much already. 

No, that wasn’t quite accurate. Rose  _ could _ go years without her friends and family, seeing them physically, hearing their voices in her ear, not being able to touch them, but only if it was because of choice and not because they were lost. 

Neither woman was sure exactly what happened. It couldn’t have been the game. They had won; whether fair and square was the phrase to use or not was moot, but they had most certainly won. They were gods of their universe, creators and benevolence. They should have been untouchable to all but themselves and their enemies, as few as they were. 

That hardly seemed to matter. The universe they had constructed had decided to turn against them, and all but Kanaya and Rose, the ones to populate it, remained. Not one God, Goddess, foe, or  _ friend _ could be found. Only digitized fragments, memories from what Kanaya had interpreted, of them floating in random, sometimes nearly unreachable areas in their beautiful, euphoric world could be found. 

At least, that was their best guess. Rose and Kanaya couldn’t travel to their other planets to investigate and put some truth to the theory. They were grounded to the one they woke up on when they lost touch with everyone. What they were sure of was Karkat and Dave, the two who had remained with them while the others enjoyed their freedoms, were nowhere to be found. 

And thus far, the memories Kanaya and Rose had recovered and played had only been of them. One had been through Karkat’s eyes, watching Dave sleep off yet another marathon of awful Rom-coms; two had been through Dave’s eyes watching Karkat rage at the TV as he played John’s second player in a game everyone knew he would suck at; the next seven were of unidentifiable origins, but all of Karkat in various stages of his life. 

Those fragments had been increasingly hard to find as of late. Rose was beginning to adopt a completionist’s attitude and combed through the maps Jake, Jade, and Dirk had made of the planet. Her reasoning was that these fragments (maybe shards were a more apt term? Kanaya and Rose hadn’t discussed it at length) had to lead somewhere, had to be gathering in one place. If this was another game, another challenge in their post-credits, it must be tackled as such. 

That didn’t mean, however, that Kanaya would allow obsession and desperation to take her wife. Kanaya had no doubt that they would find their friends and right the wrong inflicted on them. 

“You must be tired.” 

Rose gave her a hum in reply and ran her fingers down her arms. 

“Come to bed.” 

“You do remember,” Rose started, “That I don’t exactly need sleep anymore, correct?” 

Kanaya nodded, mostly to feel the soft ends of Rose’s hand brush the near-ticklish shell of her pointed ear, “Yes.” 

“I’ll take a break in a bit.” 

“You may not need sleep, but I do,” Kanaya whispered to her, “Our bed seems cold of late. And large,” She squeezed Rose, as if trying to press her being into her and convey with impulse more than words, “And uncertain.” 

“Our bed is uncertain?” 

“It houses uncertainty. Allows it to rest on it along with me.” 

Ah. The realization hit Rose harder than she cared to admit. Kanaya was afraid. She feared while she slept, Rose would fall victim to whatever force had taken the others. Kanaya would then have to search for fragments of Rose on the wind, never knowing if she would find enough to see her other half again, journeying alone and burdened. Uncertainty would certainly be her bedfellow then. 

Rose couldn’t guarantee the dreadful scenario wouldn’t come to pass while they both slept, but she supposed it was better than Kanaya going to bed alone, waking alone, and seeing Rose gone. 

Rose closed her eyes and nodded, “Alright. We’ll rest.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to steer away from more Dirk/Jane stuff, so here you go. 
> 
> As always, if you enjoy a First Line addition, please let me know if you would like to see it continued, and please let me know what you think!


End file.
